Eclipse ERP is the leading ERP system used by Electrical and Plumbing Distributors. It is a real-time transaction processing accounting software used for order fulfillment, inventory control, accounting, purchasing, and sales. It was created for wholesale distributors in the Electrical, HVAC, Plumbing, and PVF industries, but is used by a wide range of market sectors. At one point this software was called Intuit Eclipse DMS, and Activant Eclipse. The backend runs on powerful NoSQL UniVerse database from Rocket U2.
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History
Before Eclipse ERP was created in 1990, distributors mainly in the North-East used SHIMS (Supply House Information Management System) that was owned by Ultimate Data Systems. Development of Eclipse ERP started in 1990 by Eclipse Inc.; the original team consisted of Clark Yennie, Michael E. London, David Berger, Steven Grundt,and Richard Montegna. The project was a success, and Eclipse Inc was sold in 2002 to Intuit for $88 million. Years later Activant bought Eclipse ERP on August 17, 2007 for $100.5 million in cash. Apax Partners merged Epicor and Activant on April 5, 2011. Thus Epicor became the owner of Eclipse ERP. Over the years Eclipse ERP was operating under the following brands (owners):
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User Interface
Client stations connect to the Eclipse server via an Eclipse terminal emulator called Eterm and/or a thick, Java based, Solar Eclipse client. Solar Eclipse was introduced in version 8.0 on May 2004, and replaced with version 9.0 in May 2015. Keyboard shortcuts in Eterm are not the same as in Solar Eclipse.
Key features
Usage scenarios
Typical users are distribution companies, members of trade associations, with multiple regional branches and hundredths of employees. Typically these companies employ outside salesmen who travel. Inside sales people provide support to customers over the phone or email. Distribution center personnel use Eclipse ERP as a Distribution Center Management System. They do order picking, order processing, maintain inventory in stock, and send products to customers via shipping carriers. Accounting department deals with general ledger, AP, AR, and credit control. Marketing department is responsible for online and printed promotional material. Purchasing department deals with procurement from manufacturers and vendors in the supply chain. These business processes must be adjusted to work specifically with Eclipse ERP. The cost of the software depends on the numbers of concurrent user licenses and number of companion products.
Featured packages
The software has support for multi-branch operations, integrated interface for emailing and faxing (using VsiFax), customer calling queue (troubletickets), and several add-ons are available for an employee punch-clock, RF warehousing, Digital Imaging, Proof of Delivery/Signature Capture, and others. Pricing Engine allows to set pricing for customer classes, product groups, individual products, or customers, quantity breaks. Customers can have different price classes based on volume, and/or location. Price can be set for future effective dates. Authorization Keys give flexibility with user access and security in similar way as Access Control Matrix. Warehouse in Process Status Queue shows what orders to pick for customers, what transfers to receive from other branches, or purchase orders to receive from vendors. Real-time Data and Business Summary displays the income statement and balance sheet. Sales Order Management allows to receive payment from customers at the counter or over the phone. Mass Load is used to update information in the database. Third-party integration extend the functionality of the base product. Navigation menus are customized for unique users or whole departments. Accounting and Financial Management includes Receivables, Payables, Cash register. Inventory Management show inventory levels, precise product locations, history, ranking, and demand. Purchasing and Transfers are suggested by the system based on previous history and future demand.
Customization
Most of the Eclipse ERP navigation menus can be edited through the program editor by users with the necessary permissions (typically called "superusers"). There are designated "user defined" areas, such as User Defined Queues, User Defined Screens, and custom programming.
Support
Application support for Eclipse ERP users provided by Epicor consists of the Transition Team, Inventory, Accounting, and General Team. The systems support team provides support with printers, Unix/Linux Servers, Wide Area Networking, and the Imaging Server. The Companion Products support team handles PDW, Web Commerce, and other Companion products.
Community
Eclipse users meet annually at the Epicor Insights for networking and training.
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Criticism
The quality of technical support provided does not always satisfy the needs of all the customers. Some customers have to wait for months to get their issues resolved. The quality of support was different over time. In 2015 some positions were off-shored. Experienced support talent in USA was sacrificed to reduce costs. Product development was moved to Mexico. Product support was moved to India. Development team had to train their replacement in Mexico to get severance. Support team was laid off and substituted with marginally trained Indian replacements.
Limitations
Eclipse does not have a good built in Business Intelligence, so users have to rely on external tools such as Phocas or MITS. To maintain compliance with transactional taxes some users choose Avalara to automate the process. To maintain product catalog some users pick Unilog to populate attributed data.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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